July C. 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
253 
! four to six or seven feet high, clothed down to the pot, 
and from four to six feet in diameter across the pot. 
Collegian aud Nonsuch, in the way of Gracilis, were very 
fine. Perfection, in the way of Riccartonii, is a magni¬ 
ficent Fuchsia. Ajax, a large red; and Comqite de 
Beamleau, a pendulous rod. Princess, the best white 
plant. Madame Sontag, Elizabeth, and Prince Arthur, 
the next best whites. 
Verbenas. — Mr. Smith, of Hornsey, had twelve cut 
blooms of as many new kinds, but as I would not buy 
a plant from seeing cut flowers of it, more than I would 
“ a pig in a poke,” I shall only say that the best scarlet 
among those is called Islington Rival; the best white, 
Perfection ; best pink, Camellia ; and there was a nice 
vioiet-purple one, with a white eye, called Violacea ; but, 
as I said before, no one should take the least heed to a 
cut flower. I would not allow cut flowers at a show for 
love or money; the greatest rascal on earth can cheat 
you before your eyes with a cut flower, and the fairest 
dealer in the world has no bettor chance with the know¬ 
ing ones than a blackleg. 
Petunias. —Pots of the Purple King, from Mr. Reeves, 
of Notting Hill, were the only ones exhibited; this is 
the best and the only real .purple Petunia that has yet 
been raised. 
Calceolarias. —The only good one was the Welling¬ 
ton Hero, a large, flat, clear yellow flower, aud a growth 
between the Kentish Hero and Kayii ; this is a good 
Redder, if it stands the rain and the sun. The varie¬ 
gated Phloxes which I saw at Chiswick were there. 
Seedling Geraniums. — Virginia, a large white flower, 
which I described in 1852, from Messrs. Henderson and 
Son, of the Wellington Nursery, was the best white; 
Elegans, a fancy blush flower, with dark spots, is very 
distinct; Dr. Andre, a fringed flower, as it were: a rosy 
front and shaded back, is large and showy, without a 
trace of a florist’s mark ; but the most striking kind of 
all was another of the French seedlings brought out by 
Mr. Gaines, of Battersea, callod James Odier, and 
I would advise all who can afford it to purchase this 
Geranium at once. It has a large, white, feathered eye, 
scarlet front petals, and purplish-red back petals, with 
darker blotched on them, and a light edging all round 
the five petals : it is the gayest yet out, and bids defiance 
to every point insisted on by our fanciers, but it will 
make its way up to the Queen’s drawing-room against 
all opposing forms and florists. Ocellatum is the only 
English seedliug known to me to cross with these 
“ shapeless things,” as the high florists term them. I 
think it was only five years ago that the first florist of 
our times challenged me out to mortal combat, for say¬ 
ing that this Ocellatum could stand ground for one year; 
but I have just arranged with the best grower of them 
in the world that Ocellatum, and five more kinds of the 
same style, which I shall name presently, shall be put 
up next year as a distinct strain for competition, just as 
Mr. Gaines is doing now with the French seedlings. 
If I am spared, I shall keep the rod in pickle till all 
these mad florists come over to my way of thinking that 
colour is the first point to be considered in all flowers. 
Any distinct colour will do, but we must have no milk- | 
and-water. The next point is a healthy good habit in 
the parent plant, aud this will cut the ground from 
under cut-flowers altogether. The third point is strength 
to stand sun and rain; after that strong, waxy, substance; 
and at the fifth degree comes the present ultimatum — 
shape. So that we want four most essential points 
before we come to shape at all. The shape of a flower 
is really of very little use ;—a good flower cannot be of a 
bad shape, be it what it may. I would even put size 
before shape in any flower. But why waste ink on the 
subject, when all whom it may concern are well aware, 
that a gentleman, who might now be riding in bis own 
carriage, is obliged to ring the boll aud answer it him¬ 
self, to this very day, for no other reason than that he 
staked his fortune and his credit on the mere shape of 
a Florist’s flower. 
Mr. Gaines got a prize for a high-coloured seedling 
Pelargonium, named Conqueror. The prize was “ given 
for colour only,” which is something. This Conqueror 
is another flower which will work its way up to Covent 
Garden, and to all the drawing-rooms. It is the best in 
the style of Rising Sun, but is more scarlet, and more 
black in the back petals. Ho had a prize, also, for the 
curious French Seedling, which I named from Chiswick. 
Pctruchio, a large crimson and black flower, by Mr. 
Turner, of Slough, is another seedling which will follow 
the Conqueror and Magnet to Covent Garden. The rest of 
the seedlings were mere florists’ flowers, and not much 
different from older sorts, excopt Vesper, by Mr. Turner, 
aud Vesper has not a single florists’ point in it; but it 
is destined to shine in the highest circles of fashion for 
many years,; not only that, but it will come in for my 
expected new strain next year, with Ocellatum, Sanspariel 
(a beauty), Eugenia, Azurea, and Painter Improved. 
Vesper is one-half white, with no eye at all; there is a 
feathered blotch in each of the three front petals, with a 
tail to each blotch, running down into the very bottom, 
where they meet the dark on the back petals; this is 
one of the most curious features in all the English 
Pelargoniums. Pliaceton, scarlet aud black, is the 
only other seedling that I would care to have. 
] New Plants. —There were not many of them ; the 
best were Lysimachia Leschenaulti, by Mr. Osborne, of 
Fulham, and-a very large light blue Clematis from 
Messrs. Standish and Noble; the Clematis is called lanu¬ 
ginosa, and is from the north of China, and will be hardy; 
, the Lysimachia is from the Neilgherry Hills in India. 
It is a soft-wooded plant, but looks like a woody shrub, 
like some Pimelia; it branches out in all directions, 
j and has a head of pinky flowers at the end of each, 
after the head or truss of a Verbena, but the flowers are 
of the size and shape of the New Zealand Veronicas, 
with long spreading stamens just in the same way. The 
new Hamanthus, which Mr. Prince sent to Regent Street, 
la it spring, was there, and called Rooperi,. It is from 
; the Zulu country behind the Natal settlement, in Africa. 
I have grown it since 1846, in the open borders at 
Shrubland Park, and it is all but hardy, and is the 
strong st growing of all the family. 
There was a yellow-flowering Ground Orchid, from 
the Cape, with one tall spike like Bletia, or Eulophia. 
The yellow Aphelandra coming into flower; Rhodo¬ 
dendron, John Waterar, a dark crimson all over, and 
dark spotted as well, the richest hybrid yet; a magnifi¬ 
cent mass of twenty-two large blooms. Three Evergreen 
Berberis from Mr. Standish— -japonica, Bealii and inter¬ 
media. Gordoniu Javanica, a nice plant, with waxy 
I flowers, like a small white single Camellia. Hydrangea, 
cliinensis, not very different from the old quercifolium, 
and several others of less note. Mr. Salter, of Hammer¬ 
smith, had a large collection of bulbous Irises, and a 
very nice lot of China Pcconies, chiefly cream-coloured, 
to salmon, blush white, and large rose, and one or two 
deep purplish-crimson, and most of them with guard 
petals, like a Hollyhock. 
Pansies, Pinks, and Ranunculuses, were in great 
force, but as they were only cut flowers, the less said about 
them the better; besides, I am no judge at all of Pinks. 
To tell the truth, I thought all Mr. Turner’s Pinks were 
fullblown Carnations! I made the same mistake just 
this time twenty years, in the National School, in 
Gloucester, with the Anne Boleyn Pink, which was rather 
new at the time; but Mr. Wheeler pulled me off the 
top of a coach to be one of the judges, telling the people 
I was a judge of the first water ; but be told the guard 
of the coach he was. arresting me for bigamy, and 
between one thing or another, I was so confused that I 
